Prep softball 2013: Big changes in store for Everett

EVERETT — The Everett Seagulls softball team has a new head coach — at least for now.

Assistant coach Meagan Semore will handle the head coaching duties this season while head coach Casey Chaffee is away from the team on maternity leave. Chaffee will of course have input on the team, but the day-to-day coaching duties will belong to Semore.

It’s not just any team that Semore is taking over; the Seagulls have been quite successful in recent years and are coming off of a second-place finish at the 3A state tournament last season.

“I feel it’s a privilege,” Semore said. “It’s definitely been a winning tradition at Everett and it’s something that I feel that we can continue.”

Chaffee is expected to return as the team’s head coach next season and Semore will go back to her duties as an assistant coach.

The Seagulls have just two returning varsity players and six freshmen on the roster this year. Pitcher and first baseman Alexis Dittoe and center fielder Bailey Forman-Haynes are the players that return with experience.

A third player, senior Demaree Trull, could possibly play for the Seagulls this season if she recovers from a wrist injury.

But gone are many of the key members from last year’s second-place team. All-Area Player of the Year Lexie Levin graduated and is at Western Washington University, and twins Lauren and Chloe Kesterson are at Kent State.

“It’s going to be a different Everett team than the one we have seen the last two years,” Semore said. “But there is still a lot of sense of determination and being very much a team.”

Just how far the Seagulls can go this season remains to be seen. A lot of it will be determined by how quickly their young talent adjusts to the varsity level.

“We have talent,” Semore said. “But we are young. We lack the experience, but we have some great talent and some really great girls on the team.”

Semore said the goal is to have a chance to win each game and see what happens.

“I think we should be competitive and that we should have some wins,” she said.

Aaron Lommers covers prep sports for The Herald. Follow him on twitter @aaronlommers and contact him at alommers@heraldnet.com.